I may not be an OG Penn Badgley fan, but I am a fan of his now and that’s what is important, right? I first found him while watching You on Netflix, so when I heard he was putting out a book, I was intrigued. Then, Gallery sent me a free copy and I had to dive in.

Penn wrote Crushmore [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] with the co-hosts of his podcast, Podcrushed, Sophie Ansari and Nava Kavelin. I hadn’t heard of them before or listened to the podcast, so it was an interesting experience to dive into their personal experiences without any background. The book talks about their podcast being about coming of age and growing up, so that’s what they focused on for this book as well.

Crushmore is a series of essays from the three of them about memories from their childhood and an exploration of how they impacted their growth into adults. The essays are filled with heart and humor, which I really enjoyed. I especially enjoyed Nava’s entries as she discussed her Baha’i faith, since it’s something I know very little about from Rainn Wilson’s book, Soul Boom [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM].

Overall, Crushmore is pretty well-written and enjoyable. I listened to parts of it on audio to keep things moving while I was working, and enjoyed having them read their essays to me. I’m always in favor of people reading their own stories because you can hear the emotion in some of the more meaningful moments.